millennium
(mɪˈlɛnɪəm)
Pl. millenniums, occas. millennia.
[ad. mod.L. type *millennium, f. L. mille thousand + annus year, on the analogy of biennium, triennium, etc.]
1. A period of one thousand years. Also, a thousandth anniversary.
| a 1711 Ken Hymnarium Poet. Wks. 1721 II. 54 They on one Theme Milleniums spend. 1762 Macpherson Ossian's Poems, Dissert. (1806) I. p. xxxv, It is..needless to fix its [the kingdom of the Scots] origin a fictitious millenium before. 1840 De Quincey Mod. Superstit. Wks. 1862 III. 341 We may pass by a vast transition of two and a half millennia. 1832 Tennyson Two Voices 89 Let Thy feet, millenniums hence, be set In midst of knowledge. 1899 E. Markham Man with Hoe, etc. 33 The wise King out of the nearing heaven comes To break the spell of long milleniums. |
2. The period of one thousand years during which (according to one interpretation of Rev. xx. 1–5) Christ will reign in person on earth.
| a 1638 Mede Wks. v. (1672) 892 The Millennium of the Reign of Christ is that which the Scriptures call The Day of Judgment. 1772 Priestley Inst. Relig. (1782) II. 417 Arguments [are] advanced..against the literal interpretation of the millenium. 1890 R. Buchanan Coming Terror (1891) 62 Possibly, until the Millennium, there will always be drones. |
3. fig. and in figurative context: A period of happiness and benign government.
| 1820 Byron Mar. Fal. iv. ii. 156 But this day, black within the calendar, Shall be succeeded by a bright millenium. 1857 Toulmin Smith Parish 421 The millennium will indeed have come for professional vagrants. 1899 Edin. Rev. Jan. 187 A millennium, which lasted a fortnight, succeeded his [George IV's] visit. |
Hence miˈllenniumism, the doctrine of the millennium. miˈllenniumite, one who believes in the millennium.
| 1832 Fraser's Mag. V. 121 Who writes Political Economy, and Phrenology, and Millenniumism, but Scotchmen? 1837 New Monthly Mag. XLIX. 341 The movement party, with its train of optimists, millenniumites, and other indescribable shades and varieties of perfectibility-men. |
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▸ millennium bug n. Computing a programming bug or ‘error’ affecting some computers, arising from the inability of computer software and firmware to process correctly the dates of 1 January 2000 or later owing to the numerical representation of calendar years by the last two digits only (predicted at the time to cause widespread disruption to computer systems: see quot. 2000).
| 1995 Chicago Tribune (Nexis) 26 Feb. (Business Section) 5 To fix software that carries the *millennium bug, the code must be run through a decompiling program that converts the computer code into languages like Cobol. 2000 Times 11 Jan. 2/8 The millennium bug caused just 67 serious computer failures in the world during the first week of 2000. |